Android users will be noticing something a bit different about their phone soon, as Google today announced the release of a major update that completely revises the Android Marketplace.

The Marketplace will no longer be just a place from which you download apps – at least if you live in the United States. Users will be able to rent movies and purchase digital books on their smartphones. Movie rentals start at $1.99 and can be either streamed to your phone or downloaded for viewing while you’re in an area without data service. Purchases made on the Marketplace are tied to your Google account, which means they’re available on all the devices which have access to that account.

Users across the globe will have to wait for these features to become available. Google hasn’t specified which additional countries will receive these new features, and have only specified “soon” as the timeframe.

In addition to the new content, the Marketplace has received a substantial interface update. The list-based interface has been discarded in favor of one that presents apps as a series of tiles, and additional support for best-of lists has been added in hopes of making it easier for users to find quality apps. App description pages have been changed as well, with the most prominent addition being a better interface for browsing app screenshots.

Smartphones running Android 2.2 or better can receive this update, which will be rolling out automatically to supported handsets over the next few weeks.

Source: Google Mobile Blog